


Season's Grievances

by adeferentaffinity



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Christmas, F/F, F/M, The 100 Modern AU, welcome to the braven platonic angst train my dudes, with sprinkles of linctavia and becho to ease ourselves into a holiday vibe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:08:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21941920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adeferentaffinity/pseuds/adeferentaffinity
Summary: Bellamy and Raven have been best friends for over 3 years. They found each other at their low points and bonded to turn each other into better people. But when Bellamy starts dating Raven's ex, Echo, things get icy. This is a story of family, friendship, romance, betrayal, culinary inaptitude, with a slight zest of things I wanted to be canon. Also a Blake family Christmas party.Tropes Included: 1) a terribly loud crash and one of the characters yelling ‘IM OKAY’ from another room, 2) huddle for warmth, 3) found family, and 4) one character is ‘icy’ and slowly defrostsOne or all ships to be featured: becho, linctavia, or a rare pair with Luna
Relationships: Bellamy Blake & Echo, Bellamy Blake/Octavia Blake, Bellamy Blake/Raven Reyes, Echo & Raven Reyes, Emori & John Murphy (The 100), Gaia/Luna (The 100), Monty Green & Harper McIntyre, Octavia Blake & Lincoln, Raven Reyes/Roan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: Chopped: Holiday Trope Exchange 1.0





	Season's Grievances

“You know Raven’s not coming, right?” Octavia threw more tinsel over the parts of the tree that had snapped in the box over the years. It was probably the cheapest 5 footer any store had to offer and since she and Bellamy both had jobs now they could afford a much nicer one that didn’t look like it was birthed from a tornado and maybe reached either of their eye levels, but they were nothing if not sentimental.

“She’ll come. Apparently Luna introduced her to someone and she’s been way less bitter lately.”

Octavia cocked her eyebrow at her brother’s painfully strong confidence.

“Ok she’s still bitter but she hasn’t sent devil horns to every text about work in three weeks.”

“Yeah, Raven is the most passive aggressive person I’ve ever met. Including Murphy.” Bellamy scrunched his face in feigned agony at the thought of Murphy which made Octavia giggle.

“How is it that everyone we know we met through Raven?”

“You didn’t have a life before she helped you get the job. It’s your lifelong search for how to make being a loner seem cool. You regularly put people off with your glaring addiction-”

“Ok. Point made.” Bellamy smirked but he knew it was true. Before he met Raven 3 years ago, all he did was work a grind to keep Octavia and him above water. At the time Raven found him, he was working 4 crappy jobs that paid dust and if they were lucky, enough to cover the apartment they’d been living in since their mother died. A shitty one-bedroom with intermittently running water and windows as useful as crepe paper for insulation. It felt like throwing salt in every wound Octavia had and he couldn’t stop it. 

\---

Five months after his mom passed, her 30 year old station wagon finally coughed to death as a nice nail in the coffin. He had to go into the depths of coworkers passed to find a cheap mechanic that might know what they were doing. Along came Raven, a tiny thing, couldn’t have been much older than Octavia from the looks of it, being even further dwarfed by the motorcycle she screeched in on. 

“You’re Raven?”

“You’re ancient station wagon?”

“Uh, yeah… How old are you?”

“19 last month. Don’t worry, I know cars. They’re just like legos, right?”

“No… Ok, do you have actual experience with this stuff?”

“Yes I can fix a crappy car and you have to chill before you blow an aneurysm.” She set down her backpack that made a metal clang on the concrete. It had to be holding at least 30 pounds and she slung it down her arm like it was styrofoam. Popping the hood released a puff of partially condensed ash into Bellamy’s wide-eyed, dummy look.

“Karma works fast on this street.”

He fluffed then dust out of his bangs before huffing out, “Is it fixable?”

“Honestly? This engine should be six feet under. But I know you’re not in the position for a new ride so I brought a possibility.” She yanked the metal organ from her bag. It was a greasy mess, covered in rust protectant, raining oily dew from the wires sprawling out the center.

“What is that?” It looked like debris from a car wreck and there was no way it was big enough to be a car engine.

“It was the engine from my first bike. It’s pretty much a paperweight but there might be enough workable parts in it to get your wagon off the curb. Give me a couple hours.”

“Um… Thank you,” he breathed out, half convinced the ash from the car had plugged something in her brain to attempt whatever massive surgery she’d need to do with the metallic octopus. “But do you really want to butcher your first bike?” 

Raven looked up from putting on her gloves, forehead cinching at being read in any way. “I brought it here to use and fixing this dinosaur would look great on my resume.”

“Ok. But you clearly love the thing. You packed it in grease. Wrote little messages on the grates.” She peered down at her old friend and could hear the hum of its first breath just at the back of her head. 

“Everybody’s gotta move on some time.”

\---

Lincoln showed up half past 6, food in hand. Octavia clapped the lock open, maintaining a grip on her frosting bag as to not let her creative flow be physically broken away. He walked into what would probably be perceived as a madhouse but was actually pretty tame for a Blake holiday setup. Octavia went back to frosting a brigade of misshapen ginger cookies with her blue swirled frosting, making stars, trees, butterflies, and anything else she could think of. Despite just opening the door for him, Octavia was in a trance-like state until Lincoln waved her food under her nose.

“Hey! Respect the process,” she said finally parting from her counter to walk over to the coffee table where Lincoln was setting things up. He came over basically every night, per Octavia’s request. She always saw her brother retract himself into being a homebody. He made sure to be the best provider possible for Octavia since the day she was born, and she knew that made him burnt out in pretty much every other part of his life. And even since Raven has dragged him into somewhat of a friend circle, she still wanted to make sure he knew she was going to be there for him too.

But the past few weeks have been a big shift for Bellamy. Lincoln saw it happen almost immediately and when Bellamy confided in Lincoln that he was in an actual relationship, he knew that he and Octavia could pull back. But Octavia wasn’t so quick to seeing her brother’s transformation, nor was she amenable to the idea of what she saw as abandoning Bellamy. All of which Lincoln knew, so he stayed quiet and would wait for her to ease out of her routine.

“What do you wanna watch?” Lincoln said mid-flipping through the library. “Bellamy?” No response. “What’s he doing?”

Octavia shrugged her shoulders. “Bellamy?” 

She started walking towards his room when a heavy thud followed by what sounded like 30 light bulbs crashing onto the wood floors. She was ready to charge in there when an annoyed gravel let out “I’m good.”

“Jesus, Bell. What the hell are you doing?”

“Do you need help?” Lincoln called back.

Bellamy slunk out of his room, one hand holding the crown of his head, the other carrying a jangling box of broken ornaments.

“You broke cover ornaments?” Octavia started laughing as she took the box from him. Bellamy grabbed a blue ice pack and slumped onto the couch. “Why are you so bent? And what were you doing in the back of your closet?”

Bellamy shot an avoidance gaze at Lincoln, hoping he could delay Octavia’s questioning until she’d be distracted by the party. “Um what are cover ornaments?”

Octavia glanced over at Bellamy hiding his head before unfolding the story to Lincoln. “When we were really young and lived in a studio, mom would only be able to hide our presents in the bottom of a cardboard box. Whether it was one of our birthdays or Christmas, she’d put the gift in the box and cover the top in cheap ornaments from a thrift store. I found out right before my eighth birthday when she tried shoving a CD player that chirped when it opened. I can’t believe you’re such a sap, Bell. And that you’d waste closet space on it.”

“I was just… putting stuff away. It’s never been a problem before.”

“You hide my present in that thing?” she laughed, feigning going to look inside.

“I have. And don’t rifle around in there, if you’re as shakey as your cookie designs, I’m screwed.”

“Says the man who just toppled the box onto himself.” She came back to the couch and handed out forks for them all to eat. It was t-minus half an hour but they were all starving. Lincoln pulled a double shift at the clinic so he could have the night off, a feat that took a lot of bribery to the head nurse for him to swing. Bellamy had worked 7 to 4 at the engineering firm Raven got him a job at, and since it was an hour and a half drive, this was probably the first time he really sat down since 5 am. Octavia was at jiu-jitsu from 6 to 2, teaching classes and training with Indra but she’s been so buzzed she never took the time to eat.

“We could watch the news,” Bellamy said with a straight face.

“It’s never funny. No matter how many times you do that joke, it’s never funny.”

“MMA it is,” Lincoln interjected.

\---

“I think you need to chill with the peanut butter,” Raven said through a mouthful of batter. She was leaning on the cabinets as Bellamy threw more dough into the bowl. He always premade the cookie dough because Octavia couldn’t cook to save her life and he was not enduring the catastrophic attempts she made the first holiday after their mom passed.

“How’s this?” he said passing her a new spoon.”

“An improvement.”

“Good enough.” He wrapped the dough ball and shoved it in the freezer with the other dough he made in case one was the right mood. “So when’s your girlfriend showing up?”

“I don’t know. Light leash.” They both laughed. Raven was so lax about everything. The fact that she even called this new girl her girlfriend was weird to hear for all involved. She popped some chocolate chips into her mouth before hopping over to the tree lights. “These are… fun.”

None of them were lit. So many of them were busted it was a miracle they were still attached to the wires. “Minimalism,” Bellamy retorted.

“Yeah and this 20 square foot shoe box is otherwise screaming extravagance.” She started unscrewing and rescrewing some of the saddest looking bulbs. She then followed the wire up from the floor and added some tape to an old fray. She plugged it into the outlet and light sprang onto the disheveled plastic mess that was the tree.

“What the hell?” he said inching toward the outlet in shock. Before she could snark, the front door’s structural integrity was threatened by a light knock. Raven jaunted over and opened it to the guest of honor.

“Sup,” Raven said as if it were a pizza delivery.

Bellamy pulled his head away from the confusion of how easily Raven could do things to try and not be rude. “Uh hi. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Bellamy.”

“Yeah, I figured. I’m Echo.”

\---

Murphy arrived first with his girlfriend Emori. She wore a full green skirt that had ironed on patches to look like ornaments on a tree and Murphy wore the tree headband Emori thought was hilarious to buy for him in March.

“Who’s fighting?” he asked while stealing some of Octavia’s fries from her plate.

“Tate and Pennington,” Lincoln said while slapping Murphy’s hand away from his plate.

“Who’s winning?”

“There’s 12 seconds left and scoreboard at the bottom, dumbass,” Raven said from the foyer. Bellamy locked eyes with her, knowing this was a lot. He looked away and took the cookies to the front table to offer to her and everyone else with a childlike grin peeking through. She actually showed up.

Emori giggled as she walked over to Raven and handed her a wine flute with her new mechanical hand. “Oh my god! You couldn’t hold tennis ball last week.”

“I told you it’d work. I can even type a little with it on.” Emori beamed at the pride Raven had in her and the bionics she’d been working on for months to perfect. Emori was born with a malformed, painful hand on left arm. When she was 18 months they removed it and it never held her back until she started working on crazy prototypes with Raven. She saw all the amazing things Raven could manipulate with both hands at her will and Raven saw the yearning that brought to Emori. She started developing the hand for 3 months before bringing Emori in to customize anything but now it was moving like her own extension.

“If anything sticks, I can file it down for you.”

Murphy walked up behind Emori and wrapped his arm around her back. “It’s awesome, Raven. Especially for you.”

Emori elbowed him. He groaned as she said. “It’s perfect. I can never thank you enough.” She was about to choke up when a stranger walked in. Long scruffy beard, a hint of facial hair and a hulk-ish physique walked to Raven and tapped her on the harm.

“Hey. I parked two streets down but I can drive it up before we leave,” he said with a gravel riveling Bellamy’s. Raven leaned into him in an almost PDA way, a bizarre sight to see the girl who’s been known to be referred to as the ice queen.

“This is Roan.”

“Aren’t you Echo’s cousin?” Murphy asked, waiting for Raven’s cringe that sadly didn’t come.

“Basically.” Murphy looked deeply puzzled before Roan continued. “She was fostered by my aunt’s family.”

“Super interesting,” Octavia mocked. She shuffled everyone into the living room. “How are we still missing like 5 people?”

Without looking up from his phone, “3 are parking now. And… the other two are gonna be an hour late.” Bellamy locked his phone only to see Octavia about to throw a pillow at Murphy. 

“Did you tell them it starts late again? I will strangle you,” she said while toppling over the coffee table to reach for his jacket collar.

“Whooooa. Ok let’s release the idiot,” Lincoln huffed out while picking Octavia up from her waste until she released Murphy. 

“I swear I didn’t. Ok I kind of did but they didn’t buy it so this isn’t on me.” Octavia glared into his beady blue eyes like she was ready to slice.

“Luna had to work late, O. And traffic is awful from west freight. You know that.”

She sighed, “Fine. But we’re starting secret santa before they get here.”

\---

“You’ll get the job,” Octavia hollered annoyedly from her bedroom.

Raven’s palms were sweating in Echo’s hands as she fiddled with her rings. Bellamy was holding her phone to check her email every ten minutes to see if she got THE email. Echo dragged her over to Bellamy’s after 2 days straight of incessant paranoia. When they showed up, Bellamy thought she’d got bad news with how dazed she looked but before he could say anything, Echo slipped the phone from Raven’s back pocket and handed it to him.

“You are the keeper of news. She can’t take it anymore.”

“Ok. Come in, I guess.”

They walked in and Raven sacrificially sat on the couch. “I can handle it fine. Handling a life altering piece of information isn’t supposed to be cozy.”

“You haven’t eaten in 20 hours, you broke an intake valve from your death grip, and you couldn’t remember the word ice two hours ago. You need to break up with whatever this situation is.”

Bellamy walked in with the tea Raven fought for him to keep in the apartment and half a bag of stale pretzels. Raven looked to her phone he had shoved in his front pocket. “Check my email.”

He looked to Echo who nodded. “Nothing yet.”

“Did you refresh it?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure? Hand it over.”

“I know how to check emails. I’ll set a timer for every ten minutes to check again. If you harass me, I’ll make it 20 then 30 until you control yourself.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“Probably.”

After 2 hours, she was at the worst case scenario monologue stage. “If I don’t get the job, the worst that can happen is I stay in my low paying job for the next 40 years, get aggressive carpal tunnel from my cheap tools and no downtime, and find a crappier apartment than this one to encapsulate my shame. No offense.”

“None taken.”

“None of that is going to happen. If you don’t get this job, you’ll find another one,” Echo said with her hallmark pragmatism. She had a way of making everything seem calmer even at its worst. Her soft brown eyes helped too.

“But this is the one I want. I hate being vulnerable.”

“You used to want to climb your chimney so you could spy on your neighbors like, and I quote, a bird raven can. We find new things.”

“Oh my god, I remember when she first told me that!” Echo cackled. “And she took the ice picks, trying to scale up but her foot got stuck in the wood holder!”

“Oh yeah! And when she wanted to take apart all the matchbox cars in her neighborhood, she made playdough dummies trying to trick the kids but she signed them all.” Bellamy and Echo were heaving when the 20 minute chirp rang out.

“Ok enough vibing. Check it.” Echo grabbed her onto her lap as Bellamy opened her phone. He refreshed the page and for the first time clicked an email. “What!? What does it say?”

“You probably won’t have time to try ice picking again. You got it!” They all started screaming and Octavia walked into the bursting seams. Echo kissed Raven and went in for a hug when Raven lifted her by the waist. She proceeded to lift Octavia 180 degrees and then slug Bellamy’s arm.

“That’s for the 20 minutes.” Then she threw the phone from his hands onto the couch and wrapped her arms around his neck in a breathless hug.

He laughed into her shoulder and then, “What? No twirl?”

“I’m not throwing my back out before my first day of work. And mark my words, curls. We’re gonna find something for you too.”

“Shut up. This is great. And this is your thing. Let’s celebrate you.”

“I second that,” Echo hoarsed out in her post scream voice. She handed out a pretzel to everyone, and holding one up to the ceiling she sang out, “To the newest, smartest, hottest engineer at Eligius Engineering Group.”

They all cheersed and took a bite of their pretzel. “We really need to shop,” Octavia said which sparked them all to start laughing again.

\---

Monty, Harper, and Echo walked into the barrage of people and the scent of gingery cinnamon. Harper pulled a ball from her coat pocket and tossed it to Emori. “Hey! Catch.”

Emori caught the ball in her bionic glory and Monty speed walked over. “Holy hell. Your flexing is so good!”

“Your new nerve sensors are the only reason it knows what a flex is,” Raven breathed out, stepping out of Roan’s arm around her shoulder. She limped over, her brace letting out a winter squeak from the cold.

“We can put warmers on there, you know?” Monty said frustrated.

“Oh no, I totally forgot since you saying it when I came in 2 days ago and yesterday, and when we walked to our cars today. They make my leg sweaty and it’s not like I hike in the snow.”

“Let it go, Monty,” Harper said and Emori parrotted. They laughed and Emori took his scarf and wrapped it around his left knee.

“Report back how fun it is to have a single hot knee and then I’m sure Raven will be persuaded,” Emori quipped as she bowed the ends like a present.

Bellamy awkwardly walked passed Raven, accidentally brushing his arm on her back for a microsecond that felt like a horrifying infinity. How had their friendship turned into this? Without dwelling too long, Echo met him halfway and gave him a quick peck, half on his lips, half on his cheek. She was about to fasten her hair out of her face now that she wouldn’t freeze when she saw Roan leaning back on the couch, chatting with Lincoln.

“Who let you in here?” Echo laughed as she grabbed his hand to help him up.

“I said I was from the sewage department. No one batted an eye.”

“You do look pretty disgusting. When’s the last time you trimmed this spasm of testosterone?”

“I don’t know. Raven seems to like it.”

“Raven? My ex, Raven?” Her eyebrows stitched in confusion. Raven came over and handed them both a cookie.

“Bellamy… didn’t tell you?” Raven choked out. Saying his name stung. The gin didn’t help.

“He told me you were dating someone Luna introduced you to. How do you know Luna?”

Roan shoved one hand in his pocket, classic nervous tick of his whole family Echo had noticed the first week she lived with them. She found it irritating at 15 but quaint now. Well not right now because he was being an evasive coward but usually.

“I know her the same way you do. She’s a social worker.”

“Your mom would never interact with a social worker. She wears sunglasses inside malls to evade any warmth.”

“Yeah, I know,” he breathed out. “But my aunt, aka your second mother, would. I just met her 3 months ago and she introduced me to Raven.”

“Yeah I couldn’t take Raven’s sad sack gloom anymore,” Luna hollered from the front door. Octavia was so relieved she finally collapsed onto Lincoln who wrapped a blanket around her. She always got cold when she was jittering with stress. A weakness she hated being known, but enjoyed being serviced by her doting nurse. Luna continued, “so I dipped into the reservoir of acquaintances and was told of a tolerable nephew. The rest is history.”

\---

“Your boss told me you’re surprisingly good for a guy with no experience.” It was 9 pm at a bar a block from headquarters. Raven coerced Bellamy to break from his stoggey code of home by 7 for Octavia. She was 19 with her own job but she was still the pig-tailed little kid he walked to school for ten years. “I was tempted to fire him for incompetence. But I couldn’t do that to a friend.”

“Wow. Thank you, that means so much.” His speech was mildly slurred from the beer and a half he’d consumed. This might have been the most alcohol he’d ever consumed and Raven was revelling in his newbie blush.

“Yeah I mean guy who’s first name I can’t remember is like family. That’d be a heinous betrayal.”

“Oh, would it? He is always talking about how he saved your life in ‘nam.”

“Hey! That was almost funny. My little gremlin is a man now,” she said, fluffing his hair.

“You should call Echo and tell her you gave me manhood,” Bellamy giggled out. Raven’s smile fell into a drunken frown. Her lack of inhibition allowed a tear to eek out of her duct. “Hey? Did I offend you? I know I’m not mannish, it was just a joke.”

That made her laugh a little and push the tear back where it belonged. “Echo and I broke it off.”

“Oh my god, why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have fought you to come out tonight.”

Disbelieving, Raven raised her eyes from the bottom of her drink. “Really?”

“Maybe. Definitely less of a fight. What happened?”

“She said I was too wrapped up in work but I don’t think that’s it.” Her eyes trailed off for a second. “I was never open enough for her. Two ice blocks just freeze each other up.”

“It’ll be alright. Time heals all wounds.”

“Pfft. Yeah. Tell that to my leg.”

“Your leg isn’t wounded, it’s scarred. It’s adapted and so have you. You’ll do it again.”

“You’re making me miss the gremlin.”

“He’ll return with my sobriety,” Bellamy smirked out before taking another sip of his drink.

“Promise you won’t bring her up again? Probably ever. I really can’t take it,” she said verging on a stutter.

“Of course. I promise.”

\---

“This bag is for Lincoln,” Octavia sang out. She dramatically wing the bag to his feet at the chair and kissed his forehead. A ceremonious gag was let out by the masses while Lincoln removed the tissue hiding the bag’s contents.

“Mmm… more paper. How did you know?” Lincoln deadpanned as he stared at an empty looking envelope. 

“There’s something in there,” Bellamy said from the opposite end of the room. 

“It’s a good thing he’s not a surgeon,” Raven joked. 

“Two keys.”

“This and your apartment. Don’t look at me, you’re both frequent fliers and should have the means to get in to the place you live.”

“I’m looking at you because when asked you where my keys are you said I probably dropped them in a train grate.”

“Oh yeah. I lied.”

“Well thanks. Which is which?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Next gift!” Murphy yelled.

“Ok,” Bellamy stood and grabbed the highest box on the pile as Octavia slipped down to compare keys with Lincoln. “This one’s for me, I’ll just pass it.”

Before he could move on, Raven croaked out, “Just open it.”

He hung with her stare until she finally looked down. “Alright.” He sliced the taped edge of paper with scissors and unfolded a clothing box. “Is this a tux?” He thought if held it too long, the entire room would disintegrate around him. That his hands would fill with ash and memories would drained from him.

\---

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” Bellamy half-whispered, breaking the awkward silence of Raven hate-glaring the middle distance.

“You’re sorry. That’s nice. That really fixes everything. Mr. loyalty can’t see how warped this all is?”

“I didn’t seek this out. And it was 9 months after you broke up before I even saw her again.”

“You’ve been together for 7 months?” Her veins were practically splintering through her forehead.

“No! We went on one date two months ago and I felt so bad about it, all we’ve done is text since.”

“You guys are saying I love you. Maybe you are Mr. loyalty for your family. I guess I’m just not your family.” Raven walked out and slammed the door. 

These 7 months had been torture. When Bellamy saw Echo waitressing the restaurant he was picking up food at for O and Lincoln, he thought he inhaled something on the ride over. Her long brown hair was pinned into dutch braids falling into a bun, her eyes slightly illuminated by a golden halo of eyeshadow. Echo didn’t recognize him either. He never wore business casual at home so the button up was throwing her off until he came to the counter and spoke his order number.

The familiar gravel almost made her drop her tray on a preppy, nose couldn’t decipher a low altitude if it had a plane’s navigational system customer, which would’ve been gratifying, but she managed to keep everything stable enough to whip her head toward the pickup counter. The register guy was about to process the payment when she swooped over.

“I’ve got this. You might want to check the back. I… I think someone was asking for you.” Register guy was clearly confused but he walked through the swinging doors, seemingly willing to take direction. Echo sprawled her hand out for Bellamy to give her the order slip, but he was cemented in a very awkward procession.

“You work here?” were the first words out of his mouth. As if the auditory glitch of hearing his own voice worked as an ignition, he handed her the slip and rifled through his wallet for the cash. She took it like it was a biohazard and tipping it would mean the contamination of the entire city. Raven severed ties with the scope of the Berlin wall and seeing her best friend was like axing the concrete with her own tools.

“Just started last month. This is a trek from your place.” She grabbed the bag marked “Bella Mi” It was a long running gag how badly people would guess Bellamy’s name over the phone. Raven used to purposefully call places with whatever accent she could think of, have him show up to pick stuff up, and time how long the confusion would last.

“Oh, well… we moved to a place closer to work. And with less drug dealers.” They traded the cash for the bag of food. He could’ve sprinted out at the point, but his feet were planted.

“That’s great. So is Octavia still training?”

“Yeah she is. She actually pushed for the move when she found a place around here that would let her teach and train. She’s surprisingly focused with the kids. But she found a boyfriend through her trainer.”

“Nice wrench for the focus,” Echo joked as she pretended to type something necessary.

“Seriously. It was… nice seeing you.”

“You too. Um…” 

She trailed off but he knew where she was going. “Raven’s doing ok. The job’s been good for her.”

“Ok. Good. That’s good.”

“I’ll see you around.”

“That works,” she said as he backed into the customer lined up behind him.

“Sorry! So sorry.” A half wave eeked out of his arm on the way out the door and she couldn’t help but wave back.

\---

“Raven you better not be joking.” Octavia clambered over to touch the box. Inside was a pressed grey suit. It was stupidly nice and something no one should ever wear outside because it’s so situation specific. It was also about 8 times the gift limit.

“Neither of us are joking.” Echo stood up and handed Bellamy the corresponding card. The front had Raven and Echo’s handwriting but he was so perplexed he didn’t register any sentiment.

“I texted her last week saying I’d go in half on hers if she went in on this,” Raven explained.

“You guys actually spoke to each other? About me?”

“Yep and no one died. Who would’ve thought?” Echo snarked. She kissed his cheek and pulled out the printed email inside the card. “It’s a new day.”

\---

Bellamy and Lincoln were confined to opposite ends of the couch as Echo and Octavia were engaging in a worryingly dramatic thumb war.

“I fight for a living. You really think you can ‘serve’ me?” Octavia goaded.

“Life is fight and I deal with worse bullies than you. You’re too comfortable.” Echo said, about to pinch Octavia’s metacarpal under her trapzium. She got the hook and pushed into her palm. “1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Ha!”

“Ugh you’re such a hack. You and your monster hands.”

“Oh sorry for using my advantages, Miss ‘I fight for a living.’”

“Ok, that was fun. Now can we go?” Lincoln was anxious to be early for the clinic’s Halloween candy handout and it always looks good when your family will come. He roped Bellamy in first, which was easy because he thinks every kid is adorable and would adopt 300 if he could. Together they convinced Echo and Octavia by telling them they wouldn’t have to dress up, which was a lie but they wouldn’t know until they got there. 

One of the first rooms they walked into had 2 kids with broken legs. They yelled trick-or-treat as loud as possible, ringing Bellamy and Echo’s ears and beamed when they put candy in their buckets.

“What are you in for? Did you doctors come to perform surgeries and then slip on the shiny floors?” This was apparently a top tier joke for six years olds in an infirmary since they cackled at Echo.

“No! I fell out of a tree and she fell off her skateboard.”

“I didn’t fall off my skateboard. I did the half pipe and a rock got in my wheel.” Bellamy smiled at this girl who couldn’t stand being wrong. She even had a red racing stripe put on her cast. If the kid’s name was Raven, he might have been blubbering.

“Very impressive. Happy Halloween.” Echo guided Bellamy out with her hand on the small of his back.

“Have you called her lately?”

“No. She walked into me and Monty talking yesterday and almost unhinged her brace flying out of there.”

“She knows you applied for the promotion right?”

“She’d have to. She’s the highest ranked on site most days. Everything goes through her.”

Echo hooked his arm into hers and leaned her head onto his shoulder, her lightly waved hair grazing his wrist. “I’m sorry this is so tense. But knowing Raven, she’ll do the right thing.”

“Yeah… But if I’m not, she’ll happily slam the door in my face.”

“Yes, she’s stubborn. But I know she still cares about you. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t react.”

“Let’s talk about something more pleasant. Like typhoid or climate change.”

“Fine. We should fine dine at the cafeteria before we leave.”

“Perfect. This place is full of sick bags.”

\---

“Moving up the latter is good! Better pay, better hours, less paper cuts from filing.” The projector looked like it was gonna burn a hole through the plastic table Raven set it up on. Her powerpoint presentation was mostly pictures of tricked out cars, bars of cartoon gold, and faked graphs of “happiness charting.”

“They’ll never promote me. I’m not an engineer and I don’t have a rich dad to ‘make a call.’”

“That’s your whole problem! If you don’t come in with all the confidence of those rich losers, of course they won’t hire you. Arrogance is what gets you in the door. Arrogance is what brings the little guy up to the big guys.”

“I am smarter than my boss.”

“This pencil is smarter than your boss. And if you get the job, you hire someone else like yourself and eventually we won’t work with a bunch of idiots.”

“But whoever gets the job has to parade around to rich people and convince them to invest. I can’t exactly wow them,” he said gesturing to his worn out shoes and coat.

“I’ll make you a deal. If you go out for the job and actually try, I’ll vouch for you and buy you a suit that yuppies won’t cry at.”

“I’ll only need the suit if I get the job.”

“Your if’s are the one thing that will lose you the job. Just make the deal with me.”

“Ok. Deal.”

\---

Luna and Gaia were wrapping a sleeping Lincoln in paper. They’d wrapped each of his hanging legs and were working on taping him into the torso. Emori was spilling her drink, laughing at Octavia’s photoshoot of this whole ordeal. Echo was talking with Roan and Murphy about fake stocks Murphy had tried investing in when the groupchat convinced him the tree market was growing faster than anyone expected.

Bellamy was splitting a cookie with Harper when Raven walked over.

“Here, sit. Monty and I are leaving soon.” She hugged Bellamy lightly. “Good party.”

“See ya.”

Raven sank into the chair. Neither spoke for a solid minute until Bellamy broke his remaining cookie fragment and offered her a piece.

“Thanks.”

“So you vouched for me.”

“Yes.” Long pause, “It didn’t take much though. You’re well liked.”

“Sometimes.” He looked up from his hands and she was looking back at him. “I’m sorry.”

“I know. And I’m sorry too. For exploding. You guys work together. It makes sense you’d connect.”

“You’ve been my family longer than anyone outside Octavia. You’re the only reason this room of people has anything to do with each other. I never wanted to do anything that would drive you out of my life.”

She wrung her hands from palm to knuckle. She lifted the fragment in the air. “Moving on?”

He tapped the side of his fragment to hers. “Moving on.” They both took a bite into the oily cookie.

“Jesus. What do I always say about the peanut butter?”

“Yep. I definitely suck at that.”

“Nearly helpless.”

“Nearly.”


End file.
